Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To make smaller or less or to cause to appear so.
- v. To detract from the authority, reputation, or prestige of.
- v. To cause to taper.
- v. Music To reduce (a perfect or minor interval) by a semitone.
- v. To become smaller or less. See Synonyms at decrease.
- v. To taper.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To lessen; make or seem to make less or smaller by any means; reduce: opposed to increase and augment: as, to diminish a number by subtraction; to diminish the revenue by reducing the customs.
- To lower in power, importance, or estimation; degrade; belittle; detract from.
- To take away; subtract: with from, and applied to the object removed.
- In music, to lessen by a semitone, as an interval.
- To lessen; become or appear less or smaller; dwindle: as, the prospect of success is diminishing by delay.
- Synonyms Dwindle, Contract, etc. (see decrease); to shrink, subside, abate, ebb, fall off.
- To taper, as a column.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To make smaller.
- v. intransitive To become smaller.
- v. intransitive To taper.
- v. intransitive To disappear gradually.
- v. transitive, music To reduce a perfect or minor interval by a semitone.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To make smaller in any manner; to reduce in bulk or amount; to lessen; -- opposed to
augment orincrease . - v. To lessen the authority or dignity of; to put down; to degrade; to abase; to weaken.
- v. (Mus.) To make smaller by a half step; to make (an interval) less than minor.
- v. To take away; to subtract.
- v. To become or appear less or smaller; to lessen.
WordNet 3.0
- v. decrease in size, extent, or range
- v. lessen the authority, dignity, or reputation of
Etymologies
- From Old French diminuer. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English diminishen, blend of diminuen, to lessen (from Old French diminuer, from Latin dīminuere, variant of dēminuere : dē-, de- + minuere, to lessen) and minishen, to reduce (from Old French minuiser, from Vulgar Latin *minūtiāre, from Latin minūtia, smallness, from minūtus, small, from past participle of minuere). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The Dative of Reference denotes the person _to whom a statement refers, of whom it is true_, or _to whom it is of interest; _ as, -- mihi ante oculōs versāris, _you hover before my eyes_ (lit. _hover before the eyes to me_); illī sevēritās amōrem nōn dēminuit, _in his case severity did not diminish love_ (lit. _to him severity did not diminish_); interclūdere inimīcīs commeātum, _to cut of the supplies of the enemy.”
“Uncharted 2" or "BioShock 2," I'm not going to let that number in the title diminish my enjoyment.”
“It is a known fact that the quantities of chemicals secreted by the brain diminish astronomically from the early 20's to late 70's.”
“Woodward first appears to again diminish his earlier statement by saying that Bandar had publicly stated that the Saudis would like to see oil prices below the $30 range (i.e., he's suggesting that what Bandar may or may not have told the president in private was the same thing Bandar subsequently said publicly).”
“However, the intended Japanese audience would have known this already and it did not diminish from the devastating sadness of the ending.”
“Nicolas Sarkozy's prospects for a second term diminish after poll rout photo: Creative Commons/BotMultichillT”
WN.com - Articles related to UK announces taxes on rich ahead of election
“Nicolas Sarkozy's prospects for a second term diminish after poll rout”
“These terms diminish what these children have been through.”
Jesse Kornbluth: A Small Town vs. Refugee Soccer Players: Is That Our Future Too?
“My view is that when people identify themselves as being associated with the IPCC and then make pronouncements far outside current scientific understandings that this will harm the credibility of climate change science and will in the longer term diminish our role in public policy.”
“The only way to diminish is to bring competitors into the game, other labs who gain by revealing another lab's mistakes.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘diminish’.
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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movement (fast)
words describing fast action or movement
( open list, randomness, descriptive )
related:
http://www.wordnik.com...hurry, run, scamper, skip, stride, stampede, trample, scramble, dart, spring, spin, sprint and 141 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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movement (slow)
words describing slow action or movement
( open list, randomness, descriptive )
related:
http://www.wordnik.co...creep, crawl, plod, slouch, idle, lumber, tiptoe, bend, amble, mosey, saunter, loiter and 117 more...
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day8
transient, thrive, peripheral, diminish, counterfeit, peddling, vaunted, seldom, lionize, fortuitous, untimely, predictable and 20 more...
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Words that end in "-ish" but aren't a...
embellish, flourish, garnish, rubbish, nourish, admonish, punish, finish, blemish, abolish, accomplish, parish and 41 more...
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Words for financial performance
Business and financial journalists tend to use the same tired few words to describe what happens to economies, markets and prices. Enough of grow, soar, boom, crash, bust, collapse and so on. Let's...
swell, inflate, dilate, mount, accrue, magnify, amplify, blossom, fatten up, dwindle, dissipate, shrivel and 31 more...
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Verb ish
English verbs that end in -ish.
Most of these come from Old French stems that end in 'iss' like floriss-, brandiss-, distinguiss-, etc.
Exceptions are: Fish, Wish, Dish (f...flourish, brandish, vanish, astonish, perish, polish, nourish, famish, accomplish, admonish, banish, blemish and 24 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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1stDay
lucid, tenacious, adhesive, cling, reconcile, scenic, picturesque, inundate, gastrointestinal, diarrhea, heredity, alimentary canal and 89 more...
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africasunsets's list
serendipity, fragrance, glamour, smitten, nourish, lavish, luxury, wicked, gem, daring, soothe, fantasy and 192 more...
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Words from "Pearls Before Breakfast"
nondescript, shrewd, seed money, bureaucrat, indeterminate, fungible, cupidity, banal, grandeur, utilitarian, buffer, ecstatic and 123 more...
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my list
executive, oxide, slang, paddy, calamity, pledge, carved, deliberate, vastly, tolerate, simultaneous, ornamental and 114 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Learned words
Words which are highly likely to be found in the work of learned writers.
ailurophile, labyrinthine, lagniappe, colleague, anechoic, reglets, fluctuations, scalar, implicit, constitute, mortification, ambassadors and 629 more...
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